Hey i need a little help if anyone has tips for removing my body off my frame cuz i'm working in a drive way and limited to what i can use and tips, ideas or suggestions would be helpful
OK,,, What I did was to get some 4x4 timbers that would reach across the frame... and then unbolted every thing and carefully jacked the body up high enough to clean up the frame and paint it... be carefull when you jack the body up and dont do too much on one end or the other at once, because a body that is off the frame is limber and you can stress break the glass... up an inch or two on one end and then to the middle and then on to the other end... and so on... dont forget to take the steering column loose... and gas lines, and wires... just use common sense and look the situation over before you make each change and you will do ok...
I'm replacing three of the four body (cab) mounts on my Chevy pickup right now. GM occasionally does things right. There is an access hole for each mount capscrew thread. This means (at least on my '82 Chevy pickup) that you can spray the threads of the capscrew with a good penetrating oil. I use PB Blaster. I have sprayed the threads once a week for a month. Saturday morning I was able to remove one capscrew easily before a violent thunderstorm killed the power and I couldn't see sh-t! Tomorrow (Monday) I am going to see if I can get the other two capscrews out.
I don't want to scare you from doing the job but depending on where the car came from, meaning if it came from the rust belt where they use salt on the roads, there's a good chance that you will spin or break off at least a couple of the caged nuts, usually 3 or 4. The two directly under the front seat area and the two right behind the rear wheels are usually the worst. If you turn the bolts slowly and get them loose enough to spray some WD40 or PB Blaster in there, then work them back and forth.......slowly......until they turn more easily. However, if you do spin or break one the only access to them is to cut a hole in the floor from the top side, drill the spot welds out on the cage to remove the square nut, get the old bolt out, tap it and weld it back in. Then, of course, weld the floor back together. One other approach to this is to drill an 1/8" hole through the floor above each nut and, using the straw that comes with the can, spray WD40 in there to soak them before you start. I would start doing this several days before and keep soaking them.
Drill holes as mentioned on this board in numerous posts and spray! keep doing this daily for as long as you can before trying to loosen them Us air tools! it seems to help loosen rusty bolts. Most of my bolts broke, rust ate through most of them! the cage nuts also broke loose and spun, so I cut a "hatch" into the floor, and in the trunk to get at them with a grinder! ordered new cage nuts, welded them in - welded the floors....and presto! Good for another 40 years! Rust is nasty stuff! be prepared....oh, and pickup a 6-pack!
thanks i will spart PB as much as i can before i try doing anything need to jack it up and see what i'm dealing with havent looked at it in 2 years:blast:
I have to disagree with using an air impact wrench on them. That will spin/break them off in a hurry. You don't want that. Much of the time the shank of the bolts rust away which makes them smaller in diameter in between the head and the threads. Using an impact will break them off right at that point. When you do get them all off, run a tap through the nuts before installing new bolts.
i have done body mount is several difffrent gm cars and truck I would NOT use air either i would try to spray them as most said then try to loosen and go very easy the cage and nut welded in the floor break REAL easy if they are frozen i would hole saw right on top then heat them cherry red and remove them they will come out easy with heat and wont break cages for install i would soak the heated area with old engine oil and dont be shy ( heat removes all oils from the metal and makes things rust and rot easy) once oil soaked grease the nuts clean paint the frame area leave the oil on the body only wipe dry the body do not use any cleaner on the body being from mass dealing with rust sucks but this has worked great for me on many projects .
X2 on the heat, I just dealt with the rear two mounts. I used a hole saw to expose them in the trunk, heated them up really good and sprayed them with penetrating oil, did this three days in a row. finally this past sunday I welded a nut on the thread from the trunk side and viola it came right out!
I'm dealing with a rusty nut break off on a frame off on my 65 Skylark convertible and wish I would have read this thread before hand. So off she goes to my metal guy for repair.
I suggest that you do one side at a time. That way the body will not get out of alignment with the frame. Get an assembly manual, as different years and models have different mounting scenarios. Most GM A body cars have 6 to 7 mounts per side. The core support mounts are easy. The mounts under the cowl will need the inner fenders removed. They use a giant square nut inside a hollow in the body. Buicks may have 2 mounts at that location. The next 4/5 are a combination of "pucks" (no bolts) to bushings that go into a cage nut inside the body. The pucks just sit on the frame. I would take a screwdriver, and insert it between the body and the mounts that have bolts. Then, stick the red straw from a can of penetrant, like PB Blaster in and soak the bolts. Suggest that you do that daily for a week. I have done a number of these A bodies, and it seems to work for me.:TU: When all the bolts are out on one side, use a 2"x6" across the floor, and jack the body up about 2", just enough to remove and replace the mount. You may have to loosen the bumpers so the body does not hit them. When you lower the body down, the bolt holes will line up. Torque to 35-40 foot pounds.
